St Marys Books

Prolific children’s author Christine Chaundler was born on 5th September 1887 in Biggleswade in Bedfordshire, the daughter of solicitor Henry Chaundler and his wife Constance Julia Thompson. She attended Queen Anne’s School, Caversham until she was 16, and then St Winifred’s in Llanfairfechan, North Wales. Her first work was published in 1912 when she won a poetry contest.

During the First World War she served briefly in the Lank Army and worked at the publishers, Cassell, on the editorial team of Little Folks which serialised some of her earlier school stories. She also wrote for a variety of other publishers, including James Nisbet.

Once her writing career was able to support her financially she left Nisbet in 1922. Her children’s books have been hailed as ‘helping to establish the standards followed by girls’ school stories for the next 25 years’ by The Encyclopaedia of Girls’ School Stories. Chaundler also wrote boys’ stories under the pen-name of Peter Martin. She continued to write novels and short stories for various magazines until the end of the 1940s when the market had changed, after which she reviewed books. She died in December 1972.

St Mary's Books is pleased to offer a collection of Chaundler's works for sale.

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